OF WASHINGTON. 197 
was not one of degree. The eyes were always either distinctly 
hairy or naked. In the Noctuidce this was used as a generic 
character. 
Prof. Riley agreed with Mr. Howard. He did not think that 
this variation can be used as a generic character, and even ques- 
tioned its specific importance. 
Mr. Smith said that it was always of generic value in Lepidop- 
tera. 
Mr. Schwarz said that in Coleoptera this character occurred in 
various families and had always specific value. 
Prof. Riley stated that, so far as known, there were no species 
of Hemiptera that had hairy eyes. He asked if this character had 
ever been used alone. 
Mr. Smith replied that it had been so used in Noctuidce. 
Mr. Schwarz asked if there was not in other Orders some cor- 
relation between the granulation of the eyes and their being hairy 
or naked. Were not the coarsely granulated eyes always naked 
and only the finely granulated ones sometimes hairy? 
Mr. Coville addressed the Society on the following subject : 
NOTES ON BUMBLE-BEES.* 
BY FREDERICK V. COVILLE, Assistant Botanist, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
In the summer of 1885 the writer was a member of the Summer School 
of Entomology of Cornell University, under the direction of Professor J. 
H. Comstock ; and a portion of the work selected by him and assigned to 
him was a series of observations upon the bumble-bees of the vicinity of 
Ithaca, N. Y. Specimens were collected, determined, an analytical key 
to the species prepared, a series of notes made upon their specific charac- 
ters, methods of capture and rearing devised and carried out, and their 
habits studied. At the end of the season a mass of more or less hetero- 
geneous notes had accumulated containing several new and interesting 
facts, but not in condition for publication without additional work. The 
writer hoped that within a few years at most an opportunity of completing 
his observations and publishing an entire account of them would be pre- 
sented ; but as the course of events has rendered this impossible, and for 
the future improbable, the original plan of publication must be given up 
and only a few of the seemingly more important facts published. 
* Delivered in the form of an extempore talk to the Entomological So- 
ciety of Washington, February 7, 1889, and prepared from the manuscript 
notes made by the author in 1885. 
